Comments on: Google X Buys Airborne Wind Turbine Company Makani Powerhttp://inhabitat.com/top-secret-google-x-buys-airborne-wind-turbine-company-makani-power/
Green design & eco innovation for a better worldTue, 03 Mar 2015 18:35:41 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1By: mikebarnardhttp://inhabitat.com/top-secret-google-x-buys-airborne-wind-turbine-company-makani-power/comment-page-1/#comment-567673
Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:02:13 +0000http://inhabitat.com/?p=516347#comment-567673Close assessment of Google’s Makani generation shows that they have serious challenges and shortfalls. Significant portions of the wind farm will likely have to be shut down for maintenance of individual units due to safety requirements. They will require dedicated remote land as safety requires preclude being near public roads or electrical lines, and the workers’ safety and insurance organizations will be unsupportive of anyone being in such a wind farm. They probably won’t work at all in winter conditions. And most tellingly, a Makani farm just won’t outperform much simpler and more robust HAWTs of equivalent scale in the same conditions. Conventional wind turbines can be interspersed among working farms, taking up 1% of the land and adding significant revenue to productive agricultural concerns; Makani’s can’t. It’s unlikely that onshore Makani farms of any scale or number will be built; offshore is only slightly more likely.

]]>By: Egalitarehttp://inhabitat.com/top-secret-google-x-buys-airborne-wind-turbine-company-makani-power/comment-page-1/#comment-512021
Tue, 28 May 2013 18:52:05 +0000http://inhabitat.com/?p=516347#comment-512021Airborne wind just got a lot closer to commercial viability. Still some kinks to work out, but really big step!
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